The Color Purple

Project by Ryan Bauguess

Published by Pocket Books in 1982

Author: Alice Walker

Alice Walker

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Biography

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. She worked as a social worker, teacher, and lecturer and took part in the 1960s civil rights movement in Mississippi. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1982 novel "The Color Purple," and she's also an acclaimed poet and essayist.
Novelist, poet, feminist. Born Alice Malsenior Walker on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. Alice Walker is one of the most admired African American writers working today. She studied at Spelman College, Atlanta, and Sarah Lawrence College, New York, then worked as a social worker, teacher, and lecturer. She took a brief sabbatical from her writing in the 1960s to live in Mississippi and work in the civil rights movement, returning to New York to write for Ms. magazine.
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An accomplished poet, Alice Walker is best known for her novels, most notably 1982's The Color Purple for which she won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The book was later made into a successful film, which tells the story of two black sisters in the segregated world of the Deep South. Later novels include The Temple of My Familiar, Possessing the Secret of Joy, and By the Light of My Father's Smile. She has also written volumes of short stories and essays, including You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down and In Search of My Mother's Garden.
Recently, Alice Walker published a collection of essays entitled We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Light in a Time of Darkness (2006). She also wrote the well-received picture book,There Is a Flower at the Tip of My Nose Smelling Me (2006). Her most recent novel was 2004's Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart.
Alice Walker was married to activist Mel Leventhal from 1967 to 1976; the couple had one daughter, Rebecca Walker.
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Setting/ Time Period: Setting in Georgia, around the era of 1910-1940

Genre: Historical Fiction

Theme Statements:

Women can have just as many rights and just as much power as men when they take a stand for themselves.
People will ALWAYS be judged by the color of their skin and the arrangement of their chromosomes.
The relationship between women can appear as binding and tight as the stitches in a quilt.

Primary Characters:

Celie: The wife of Mr. ___ and mistress of Shug Avery. She is poor, uneducated, submissive, and has a horrible history. She was raised raising children and being abuse in every way possible.

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Mr. ___: Runs a farm and is the husband of Celie. He is jealous because he couldn't have Nettie or Shug Avery, his first choice. He is very abusive, and still in love with Shug. He undergoes significant change throughout novel as he realizes women are not objects. He also goes by the name, Albert.

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Shug Avery: A singer of devil’s music (blues). She is the lover of both Celie and Mr. ___. She is flamboyant, a heartbreaker, eccentric, and masculine in attitude and language, as she lives with men.

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Nettie: The sister of Celie. She raises Rev. Mr. __'s kids, which are Celie’s kids, Adam and Olivia. She was separated from Celie and was taken in by the Rev. Mr. _. She ends up living in Africa with the Olinka tribe for years. She is protective, motherly, intelligent, and ambitious.

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Secondary Characters:

Harpo: The son of Mr.___. He was married to Sofia and was feminine in the relationship. When Sofia left him, he dated Squeak (Mary Agnes). He often suffered inner conflict trying to be more masculine in a relationship.
Sofia: She is a hardened, tough woman who was married to Harpo. She spent the majority of her life in prison and serving the Mayor’s wife, Millie, and her children for hitting the Mayor. She is basically a lost soul because she struggles to find happiness.
Squeak: The lover of Harpo. She goes through change and demands gender equality, starting with her wish to be called by her real name, Mary Agnes.
Alphonso: The believed father of Celie and Nettie until Nettie revealed her findings through her letters. He inhabited land that was rightfully Celie's and Nettie's.
Samuel: The reverend who hires Nettie and adopts Celie’s children, Olivia and Adam. He later marries Nettie after death of his wife, Corrine.
Corinne: The wife of Rev. Samuel. She dies of fever, and was forever jealous of Nettie's resemblance to the children and her motherly role.
Adam: The son of Celie. He marries Tashi, of the Olinka tribe.
Olivia: The daughter of Celie. She builds a strong sisterly relationship with Tashi.

Structure and Style:

Alice Walker's style is raw. She doesn't beat around bush, or use any type of euphemism. She is very straightforward. Punctually, she uses no quatations for dialogue, which is different from the norm. Her style and themes are controversial and criticized often.
Critical Essays to check out:

Symbols:

Shug Avery: represents what women were NOT in the early 1900's. Her language and actions push the limits of the role of women, and she serves as a beacon for individuality.
Sewing: a symbol of bonding between the women of the novel. i.e. Sofia and Celie work on a quilt after the confrontation over Harpo's abuse; Sewing pants with Shug Avery.
Letters: symbolize the connection between lost and separated worlds. America and Africa, Celie and Nettie.
The Marriage of Adam and Tashi: symbolizes a new era of thinking for both the tribes of Africa and the societies of America, as they are forced to accept a new combination of relationships.

Tone:

Serious, Melancholy, Hopeful

Major Conflicts:

-- Celie's abuse through her entire life, verbally, physically, emotionally, and sexually, caused her to be extremely unhappy. She solves this problem by standing up for herself against Mr. and leaving with Shug Avery.

-- Celie eventually discovers Mr. had been holding on to all of Nettie's letters. Celie's solution was killing the man but Shug talked her out of it. Instead, Shug retrieved the mail from then on and Celie got her letters.
-- Shug Avery caused a love triangle between herself, Albert, and Celie. Both Celie and Albert go through heartbreak but it ends with the three of them all being friends, and nothing more.
-- Nettie was unable to come back to America as soon as she thought. It would have taken years. Albert goes through a change in life and point of view and signs the legal documents for the family to come back to the States.

The Reunion of Nettie and Celie

Key Scenes:

Nettie is kicked out and runs away, page 18.
Sofia goes to jail for punching out the Mayor, page 90.
Shug Avery takes initiative to protect Celie from Mr. and stays around for a while, page 79.
Celie stands up to Mr. and moves away, page 205.
Nettie and Celie are reunited at last, page 292.

Key Quotations:

“First time somebody made something and name it after me” (75) Spoken by Celie about Shug's song, "Celie's Song". It shows Celie's first hope at independence.

“I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time.” (222) Spoken by Celie about her life. It shows the independence she achieved as a black woman.

“I'm pore, I'm black, I may be ugly and can't cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I'm here.” (214) Spoken by Celie as she stands up for herself. It means she's a person too and she deserves to be treated like an equal.

Reaction:

The Color Purple was an amazing journey into the world of African American women in the early 1900's. The raw language and style of using letters between sisters and God was positively different and new to me. This plot opened my eyes to southern culture, and allowed me to take initiative in learning more about it.